Doing themselves no favours

Clintons Cat

Rabin,Martin Luther King,Ghandi,anyone see the link?

Seems like some political philosophies are just to radical.

Talk of Reconcilliation and harmony might just get you killed.

DadaKopf

Shinji: to your original post...

Of course there's no justification and of course both sides are guilty of atrocities. Of course the Israelis are the ones with the upper hand since they're the ones with the money, the backing, the international news (which they and associates largely buy) behind them. Sympathies SHOULD go to the Palestinians, I've said this for years.

Of course, the war (and I DO think it's a war) has reached a stage of critical mass where it's completely out of control. Pent-up, and probably genuine, anger on both sides has arrived at a point and an intensity that both sides feel equally justified.

As in Northern Ireland, the key is for Israel as a friend of the West to grant Palestinians the basic human rights that humans deserve. The British denial of these rights let to the Troubles and once they genuinely introduced a little equality into the society, the violence became unjustified. That's not to say it'll go away. As long as Israel keeps fighting stones with bullets and bulldozing people's houses for Jewish settlements, I don't believe they should cutty any favour with the International community.

Yes that incident in the cave was horrendous but you also have to understand that it's a VERY different culture to ours, with traditions and tendancies, personalities and mindsets that we as westerners can't understand.

I find it very regrettable that the West only be turned onto this long lived atrocity NOW. It's been going on since the 1950s.

DadaKopf

Eh, what I kinda meant was that just because they do certain, barbaric, things, that's us viewing through a western lens. My course in college called the stance 'cultural essentialism' and I'm of the opinion that apart from socio-economics, historiography and power-politics, there is a central element of indigenous culture at play.

Not only is there still a tradition of local princes/sultans/kings/oil barons/presidents/PLO Leaders (which goes back thousands of years) but there's also a history of extreme zealotry and 'barbaric' acts.

Most of us really haven't a clue what's really going on nor do we understand how it feels to actually live in that area of the world. Imagine living in a sh*thole where your job prosepcts are tiny, your income is tiny if at all existent, the chance of being killed, injured or having your hous bulldozed is deemed extremely likely and to top it off, you can't understand why you're the object of inhuman treatment.

Peace should be sought but people should be careful to judge the war, it's only through western eyes.